The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1887-08-27
PRINTING IN INDIA


| euon FuDlDner In Lucknow.
The natives OF India are rapidly adopt.
ing Western methods. In no respect il
that fact more apparent than in tho
publication of books and serials. From
the time when Carey landed In Cal.
cutta, in the last decade of the eight
zenith century, and set up his print
ing press in the little Danish suburb Of
Serampore, down to the present year,
no Christian missionary has exhibited
more energy and thrift than the Mo-
hammedan and Hindu natives are now
displaying for the propagation of their
faiths.
The most striking illustration of
this remarkable departure for strength
ening the trembling fabric of the old
religion Of India is the great publish
ing house of Muushi Newal Kishore,
in Lucknow. This is the fourth city in
size in India, and is we'll situated as a
distributing center, not only for the
whole valley Of the Ganges. but for the
entire Indian peninsula. Kishore is,
first of all, a school-book publisher. He
seems to have the favor of the British
Government to remarkable degree,
and fills contracts for supplying books
in the Indian tongues to schools in
large portions of the Punjaub. He is "a
Mohammedan, and makes no secret of
it. But, with the publishers instinct,
he keeps his religion in the background.
He never puts his faith at the top of
his bill-heads. He is a broad man
broad in every thing except Christian
ity, and it is not likely that the Gospel
has a more vigorous Halter in the whole
Gangetic Valley than this willy man.
But he is no bigoted professional. Bit
ter hater as he is Of Hinduism and of
all the numerous non-Mohammedan
faiths, he seems as ready to publish
books for the promotion of Brahminism
and of its rival faith. Buddhism. as to
issue apologies and textbooks in be-
half Of Islam.
The Kishore Publishing House is
situated on the Hazrat Gunge, the
main street of Lucknow. The build
ings are numerous, but low, mostly of
one story, after the native fashion, and
exceedingly plain. Many of them are
mere sheds, where the work is done in
full view of others on the premises.
The roofs are of brick tiling. These
buildings cover vast space, which is
divided into many alleys and monde
script passage-ways, running at all
angles with each other, and describing
such curves as one can find in the
denser parts of Lubbock or Nuremberg.
entered the premises by Il long lane
running at right angles from the
main street. No one passing along the
street would suspect, unless he should
turn into the lane, the number of men
hard at work at the farther end, or the
wonderful magnitude of their opera
tons. The orders are constantly COM
ing in from all India, and even from
Afghanistan, Arabia, and Turkey in
Europe The many people engaged in
carrying on this business have all they
can do to fill the orders and prepare
for new ones on the way. Were the
buildings covering such an area as this
in Europe, and four or five stories high,
yet turning out no more work than
these primitive huts and sheds, their
value would not be less than half
million dollars. But in Lucknow value
those buildings and the ground covered
by them would not sell for more than
forty thousand dollars. The huts have
no wooden floors. Mother Earth is the
common resting-place. The men and
boys in great numbers sit on the earthen
floor in all possible positions, and carry
on their work. They set type, read
proof and bind sheets while sitting
squat on the ground.
There is great disproportion be-
tween the amount of type and the vol
umes printed. While there is an i'm
mense quantity of type used in Kish-
ores house. the lithographing of
whole book is favoritc procedure. l
have copy of the Koran, bought upon
the premises, which is one foot long
and eight inches broad. and ! am quite
sure that not Il type was used in the
printing OF it. The plates are litho-
graphs, and of excellent finish As
this particular volume was intended to
be illustrated in colors, the difficulty
was to supply the cuts. This. Of course.
could haze been met by II separate i'm
preston. But that j. not kishore'S
method. All these blanks are filled by
colored illustrations applied by hand.
These are quite rudcl, done. and yet
the pictures are striking. and to an
Oriental eye must be attractive. For
the Koran which | bought having
three hundred and seventeeu pages,
with numerous manual illustrations.
bound in full leather, the price was
only two dollars aud half.
But while a large portion of the work
in this Mohammedat publishing house